The UCI Women's WorldTour Chronicle

- What Happened? -

The UCI Women’s WorldTour continued in Cittiglio on Sunday with the hilliest round yet. The Italian one-day race covered 123 kilometres over an undulating course.

World champion Lizzie Armitstead (Boels Dolmans Cycling Team) won in Cittiglio last year, and she repeated the feat on Sunday. The defending champion launched a late race attack that was intended to set up her teammate Megan Guarnier for victory. Instead, Armitstead’s powerful turn of speed turned into the race winning move. Guarnier took out the chase group sprint for second. Jolanda Neff (Servetto Footon), who had led the race over the final ascent up the Orino, rounded out the podium.

The Boels Dolmans Cycling Team 1-2 punch in Cittiglio shows the team’s strength in the UCI Women’s WorldTour. Three rounds into the inaugural series, and riders from the Dutch-registered squad have climbed to the top step of the podium every round. Armitstead won Strade Bianche at the beginning of March. Chantal Blaak won Ronde van Drenthe one week later. And now Armitstead is back on the top step, and back in the white UCI Women’s WorldTour leader’s jersey, following round three.

- What you should know about -

Gent Wevelgem in Flanders Fields

The UCI Women’s WorldTour travels to Belgium for the fourth round of the series. Gent Wevelgem is a spring classic run over the cobbles and climbs that make the region of Flanders famous in the sport of cycling. The men’s edition of the grueling race is now in its 78th edition. A women’s race, run on the same day as the men’s, is now in its third year.

Floortje Mackaij won Gent Wevelgem last year in true classic conditions. The Dutchwoman emerged victorious on the cold, wet day after she attacked out of a leading group of six with three kilometres still to race. Janneke Ensing (Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental Team) edged out Chloe Hosking (Wiggle High5) in the sprint for the lesser spots on the podium.

The 2016 edition of the Belgian race will cover 115 kilometres with five ‘hellingen’ or climbs – the Kemmelberg x 2, the Monteberg x 2 and the Baneberg. The climbs are grouped in the middle of the race with the first ascent of the Kemmelberg coming at the 51-kilometre mark and the final time up the Monteberg at the 81-kilometre mark.

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- Focus On -

Kasia Niewiadoma had a break-out season last year. Her early season results showed her strengths in the hills. She was sixth at Strade Bianche and fifth at Flèche Wallonne, won the overall at Euskal Emakumeen Bira, pulled on the U23 European Championships jersey following her second-place finish in the road race and won the youth classification at the Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile (the Giro Rosa). Her consistency across the now defunct UCI Women Road World Cup series earned her the honour of being the last rider to win the World Cup’s best young rider jersey.

And she’s picked up where she left off – finishing in second place at Strade Bianche earlier this month and in seventh place at Trofeo Alfredo Binda. Following time spent with Niewiadoma in the decisive late race escape at Strade Bianche, UCI World Champion Lizzie Armitstead said: “Kasia’s going to be the next big thing.”

Now 21-years-old, Niewiadoma grew up in Ochotnica. The small village in the south of Poland, near the Slovakian boarder, is near several ski resorts. The roads rise out of her village’s valley, and Niewiadoma had no choice but to climb as she trained.

Luckily she proved a natural-born climber. Niewiadoma developed quickly as she made the jump from the junior ranks to the U23 category and from U23 to elite. Fifth place in the 2013 European Championships as an 18-year-old announced her arrival to several top teams. She joined Rabo Liv Women Cycling Team as a trainee that same year and officially made the move to the pro ranks in 2014. She’s been part of the Dutch-registered squad ever since, learning alongside the likes of Marianne Vos and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot.